Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-01-01

neither be dismayed; see have
given into thine hand All and her peo-
ple" But, in the second place, we must not
be over-confident. We must muster all our
forces in order to overcome evil and enter
upon our inheritance. We must take AL
the men of war" with us-put on the whole
armor of God. Not only this; we must use
n wise discretion and 'lay an ambush for the
city behind it, To ''lay an ambush. when
spoken of the sophistries of the carnal mind,
is to disregard their specious reasonings and
estimate their real nature The intellectual
faculties are before--in the forehead the
emotional powers behind-at the base Of the
brain. What is before signifies what is in
teiiectual and what is behind the voluntary
principle. To examine anything in front is
to look at the reasons that are put forward
in its defence. To ''lay an ambush" against
it behind is to inspect the secret motives from
which It springs. 1t is to go behind the fall
lacious reasonings of the natural man and
probe the intents and purposes OF the heart.
Ibis is the only way We can ever nope to cir
cumvent and overcome the subtleties by
which the sinner excuses his sinful
ness. Again, Joshua represented the Lord ;
his hand. power; aud the spear In
his hand the power Of truth combating. His
stretching out the spear. therefore, repre-.
sentng the divine omnipotence of truth
against the subterfuges of the natural mind
whenever we look to the Lord and endeavor
the success of every coed cause is dependent
upon the continued exertion of the divine
power because it is said "JoshIa drew not
his hand back, wherewith he stretched out
the spear, until he had utterly destroyed al
the inhabitants of Al"
In closing the speaker drew an encouraging
lesson from the SUBJECT As the Lord was
present with the Children of Israel in theii
efforts to drive out the inhabitants of the
land, so lie is present with Us in our efforts
to remove the false notions that reside in
our minds; aud as the Children of Israel al.
ways succeeded when they put their faith in
the Lord and observed His directions, SO we
will succeed if we will look to Him and
obey His command nents. Only one difficulty
stands in the way-the difficulty of making
complete surrender to the Lord, the entire
conservation of all our powers to his service
Having made that we need fear nothing.
The Lord will be with us as He was with
Moses and Joshua. He will @ before us and
drive out our enemies. He will give us au
assured rest and quiet habitations It will
not be necessary for Us to go olt after our
enemles-to attempt great things, or to ac-
complish great results. All that will be
needed will be faith and follOwing-trust in
the Lord and obedience to His command
ments.
The practical question is: Have we made
this dedication to the Lords II we have not.
we cannot expect to succeed even in our CT
forts to do good, because they are our own
efforts If we have we cannot fail, because
we are attempting the Lords work and not
our own; and he who is really endeavoring
to do the Lords will must receive the influx
of the Lords power. All we have to do in
that case is to claim our inheritance and it
will be ours. "Behold, the Lord thy God
hath set the land before thee; go up and pos
sess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath
said unto thee; fear not, neither be dis
mayed